When Savages make their hotly tipped Asian debut at St Jerome's Laneway Festival in Singapore this month, you might want to think twice about whipping out your iPhone to immortalise the moment. Last April, the post-punk band briefly caused a stir online by echoing the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' anti-camera sentiment at a Seattle gig.
'People have actually responded to that really well,' opines Savages guitarist Gemma Thompson (pictured, right). 'I have had experiences on both sides - when you're in the audience, you want to document everything and prove you're there, but when you're onstage, seeing people watching you through a phone, it's not a good experience at all.'
For Thompson and her bandmates - vocalist Jehnny Beth, bassist Ayse Hassan and drummer Fay Milton, this ostensibly Luddite philosophy reverberates beyond a dingy pub, sprawling festival ground or sold-out stadium. 'It's just a way of life: To not get distracted and enjoy things as they are,' reasons the soft-spoken Thompson, who adds that the London outfit's primal, tenacious brand of grungy guitar-rock is very much about total immersion.
It's this unflinching single-mindedness that has made Savages one of 2013's breakthrough acts and their debut LP 'Silence Yourself', released last May, one of the most critically acclaimed records in the past year. 'We put a lot into making [the album],' describes Thompson of the intense three-week recording process. 'We explored everything we wanted to do within the confines of what we wanted to document.'
The result is a near-flawless throwback rock effort filled with fiery, ferocious gems like uncompromising opening track 'Shut Up', 'City's Full' and 'She Will'. Thompson's dexterity on the guitar and the French-born Beth's commanding vocals light up 'Silence Yourself', which remarkably captures a level of physicality and forcefulness akin to a Savages live show experience - something the former art student was quick to affirm. 'We wanted some of the songs to retain a live element,' explains Thompson, who admits that the quartet's emphasis on live performances meant they didn't think about recording for the longest time. 'We work through the performance and finish the songs from there.'
The well-received 'Silence Yourself' certainly went a long way to justifying the band's massive hype that began swirling months before they made a stunning impression across the pond at Coachella last April. 'Last year has all been pretty much an adventure,' muses Thompson, who points to the band's American tour with Johnny Hostile and Duke Garwood as a standout moment. Coupled with multiple dates around Europe (including the Holy Grail of Glastonbury), it represented a whirlwind 12 months for a band who only formed in 2011.
However, if the spiritual successors to late-'70s icons Siouxsie & the Banshees are fearful that their quick-fire success could be stripped away just as swiftly and unexpectedly as it arrived, the band is not showing it. 'I certainly hope not,' laughs Thompson, before dismissing that notion entirely. 'For us, we'll continue creating and doing what we are doing. We take what we do seriously and with discipline, so we try to focus on just work.'
This no-nonsense approach to music-making may sound peculiarly sombre and unnervingly grounded in an age of instant celebrity and million-dollar record deals, but it's really not too surprising to learn that the girls from Savages are serious about their craft. After all, this is the four-piece who wears monochrome because 'music is the main thing' and posts philosophical manifestos about the band's musical intentions on their website.
Thompson, though, does light up at the talk of future collaborations and avant-garde projects, especially with the the band's newfound fame. 'The happiest thing right now is that we're more capable of seeing things through when we have an idea,' purrs the erstwhile Hindley guitarist, who was finally able to bring to life an animation she'd been envisioning for many years last October. Inspired by Kurt Vonnegut's 1969 satirical novel 'Slaughterhouse-Five', she devised and storyboarded the grim animated music video for the band's 'Marshal Dear' track, a few months after her band worked with acid punk group Bo Ningen on a Dadaist dual language poem 'Words to the Blind' at London's The Red Gallery.
'We really enjoy things that push us - there's a stimulation that comes with evolving art, which is never final,' says Thompson, who points to an experimental pre-show dance piece that was present during their Electric Ballroom gig in Camden as a way the band thrives to expand their format of guitar-based music. When asked about the possibility of a similarly visual set at Laneway Festival, Thompson was less upbeat, reverting to the more stoic, wistful form we know and admire.
'Hopefully the performance itself would be enough.'
'Silence Yourself' is now on Deezer and Spotify
